The Oscar Nominations Go to Big-Budget, Big-Spectacle Films

Iñárritu with Leonardo DiCaprio and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on the set of The Revenant. Twentieth Century Fox

The nominees for the 88th annual Academy Awards ceremony were announced this morning, serving as further proof that 2015 was a pretty great year for movies, especially starry, sweeping, big-studio movies. As expected, the furtive fur-trapping epic The Revenant—featuring recent WIRED cover boy Leonardo DiCaprio—led the pack, earning 12 nominations in total. But there was also lots of love for fantastical box-office hits like Mad Max: FuryRoad and TheMartian; crowd-pleasers like Straight Outta Compton; and small-scale gems like Spotlight and Brooklyn. Even Star Wars: The Force Awakens grabbed five nominations (including one for long-time composer John Williams), though it didn’t end up in the line-up for Best Picture.

There were some surprising snubs, of course: Despite The Martian landing seven nominations, director Ridley Scott wasn’t named for Best Director. Meanwhile, previous winners Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs) and Quentin Tarantino (The HatefulEight) were shut out of their screenwriting categories. And Todd Haynes’ Carol—a mainstay on many year-end lists and critics’ awards—was snubbed in both the Best Picture and Best Director categories. The biggest letdown, though, was that the acting nominee categories were rigidly, ridiculously lily-white—galling in any year, but especially stinging when such films as Creed and Beasts of No Nation featured awards-worthy performances from the likes of Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, and Idris Elba. We imagine Chris Rock will have some choice words about that as the host of this year’s ceremony, which takes place in Los Angeles on Feb. 28. The complete list of nominees are below:

Here’s The Thing With Ad Blockers

We get it: Ads aren’t what you’re here for. But ads help us keep the lights on. So, add us to your ad blocker’s whitelist or pay $1 per week for an ad-free version of WIRED. Either way, you are supporting our journalism. We’d really appreciate it.